1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a vacuum cleaner that has an ultraviolet (UV) sterilizing lamp to disinfect a dust receptacle for collecting impurities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vacuum cleaners generally collect dust on surfaces being cleaned by drawing in ambient air, using negative pressure generated by a vacuum source mounted in a cleaner body. With the recent boom in interest in healthy life-styles, vacuum cleaners having an ultraviolet (UV) sterilizing lamp provided on the cleaner body have been introduced in order to remove germs that may exist in dust collected in a dust receptacle in the cleaner as well as collecting the dust.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0232536 discloses a vacuum cleaner having a UV sterilizing lamp for killing worms or ticks in a dust bag, and a transparent quartz glass board is mounted on the front of the UV sterilizing lamp mounting portion to protect the UV sterilizing lamp from foreign substances.
However, a UV sterilizing lamp of a conventional vacuum cleaner configured as described above is operated only when the vacuum cleaner is used, so the sterilizing time is restricted by the operating time of the vacuum cleaner. Accordingly, the efficiency of the UV sterilizing lamp in sterilizing collected dust is low.